STATE HOUSE ROUNDUP -- A rough week in the Senate

By Matt Murphy STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

Monday

Apr 2, 2018 at 9:00 AMApr 2, 2018 at 11:44 AM

A recap and analysis of the week in state government.

The hits just keep coming.

Every time it seems the Senate might be ready to finally turn the page and bear down on the task at hand -- legislating -- another shoe seems to drop. And unfortunately last week, there were more copies of arrest reports and indictment sheets floating around the east wing of the capital than bill summaries.

Sen. Michael Brady of Brockton got the bad news train rolling in the early morning hours of March 24 when he was pulled over in Weymouth after allegedly nearly swerving into a liquor store parking lot and then back across two lanes of traffic.

On his way to being arrested for drunk driving, Brady reportedly told police he had been drinking at a "work event" in Boston that night and handed over his state ID, telling cops (maybe as a courtesy?) he was a senator. He then allegedly failed several field sobriety tests, including getting only as far as J in the alphabet, and found himself March 26 in Quincy District Court facing arraignment.

By midweek, Brady had apologized to his colleagues and said he was entering short-term rehab. And for now, it appears his apology has been accepted. Senate President Harriette Chandler said that while she was disappointed in Brady, punishment for now would be left for the courts to decide.

On most weeks, a sitting state senator spending part of his weekend in handcuffs would be enough to digest. But Brady may have been relegated to yesterday's news by the indictments handed down March 29 against Sen. Stanley Rosenberg's estranged husband Bryon Hefner.

Hefner essentially cost Rosenberg the Senate presidency back in December when allegations first surfaced that he allegedly sexually assaulted four men who do business on Beacon Hill. He's now dealing with more than just being a political liability to his once-powerful husband.

A statewide grand jury indicted Hefner, 30, on five counts of indecent assault and battery, one count of open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior and four counts of dissemination of a visual image of a nude or partially nude person without consent.

The indictments were the result of criminal investigation launched by Attorney General Maura Healey and Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley after several men went public with their allegations in the Boston Globe.

So how do you describe what it's been like to work in the Senate over the past several months? Well, one senator called it "one of the toughest periods in the history of the state Senate." And she's in line to lead this group of bad news bears in nine months, if not sooner.

Those, of course, were the words of Sen. Karen Spilka, who recently stepped to the microphone to claim the mantle of Senate president-in-waiting. Spilka said her ability to rather quickly corral the support of her colleagues had at least something to do with a collective desire to move forward from the turmoil of the past four months.

It's now clear that might not be possible, at least not until after Nov. 4.

Even if senators can put these most-recent distractions behind them, there's still more to come. The Ethics Committee investigation being led by the law firm Hogan Lovells into Rosenberg himself could drop its findings at any time.

So maybe it's no wonder that the churn continues.

Sen. Brendan Crighton recently took his seat in the chamber for the first time, and after an uncontested primary in the First Suffolk District, South Boston Democratic Rep. Nick Collins will be on a likely glide path to the upper chamber.

Special elections for 2018 are nearing the finish line in South Boston and Dorchester, but not the departures.

The foregone conclusion of Lowell Sen. Eileen Donoghue's move to Lowell City Hall was solidified March 27 when the city council unanimously picked Donoghue as the next city manager. While she hasn't yet finalized the timing of her resignation, Donoghue does plan to leave the Senate soon to assume her new duties, and because she's not stepping down by April 1, there won't be a special election to fill her seat.

Donoghue's seat, therefore, will be up for grabs in November -- and empty until then -- along with that of Newburyport Sen. Kathleen O'Connor Ives, who is not seeking re-election, and Sen. Barbara L'Italien who is running instead for Congress.

And then there's Sen. Joseph Boncore, who last week floated his name as a potential candidate for Suffolk County district attorney, to replace the retiring Conley. If Boncore, of Winthrop, does get into the race, he would join five other Democrats, including one other elected official, Rep. Evandro Carvalho.

While jumping at new opportunities seems to be en vogue these days, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh's chief lawyer at City Hall, Eugene O'Flaherty, has opted against entering the DA race himself, according to someone close to the Charlestown Democrat.

And At-Large City Councilor Michael Flaherty, who at one point seemed eager (if not overeager) to succeed Conley as the county's top prosecutor, may also be leaning against it now, insiders say.

Here at Roundup headquarters, we would never suggest that Gov. Charlie Baker was exhaling over the string of atrocious headlines targeting legislative Democrats. But it has taken some of the immediate sting out of his own struggles with the State Police.

Baker is arguably going through one of the most-trying times of his governorship since the 2015 meltdown of the MBTA, and at a most-inopportune time.

On the heels of a controversy over an edited arrest report of a judge's daughter, an overtime scandal at the State Police involving allegations of troopers taking pay for traffic enforcement shifts they never worked has put another grenade on the desk of new Col. Kerry Gilpin -- and by extension, Baker's.

"It's clear that the State Police is going to have to work back some of that public credibility that's been sacrificed by some of these really bad actors," Baker said.

The governor has put his faith in Gilpin, on the job for just four months, to restore that public trust, but it seems the more questions that are asked, the more gets exposed. Last week, questions of trooper pay led to the Boston Globe's discovery that salary data for Troop F, which polices the Seaport and Logan Airport and is paid by Massport, has been missing from public records kept online since 2010.

The amassing evidence of mismanagement has given fodder to Baker's political opponents at a time when the men seeking to steal his job away are desperate for traction with voters. Former state budget chief Jay Gonzalez said Baker needs to "take some accountability" rather than just empathize with the public's shock, and former Newton Mayor Setti Warren wants the Legislature to appoint a special commission to investigate the State Police.

Even Attorney General Maura Healey, who passed this cycle on the governor's race, said March 29, "I think it's time that the Baker administration take a leadership role on this issue."

Baker's administration last week also completed its retreat from the Northern Pass transmission project, which was the state's first choice to bring Canadian hydropower to Massachusetts, and opted instead to pursue a contract with New England Clean Energy Connect in Maine.

The reversal became almost necessary after New Hampshire regulators denied Northern Pass a critical permit days after the project was selected by Massachusetts. The deadline set by the administration for the project's partners to successfully appeal that denial passed last week, and Massachusetts moved on.

But some environmental groups say the NECEC project is no sure bet, either, and the state can ill afford to have another contract upended by another state's permitting process if Baker hopes to deliver on time on the promise of clean energy needed to meet the state's pollution-reduction goals.

Also last week:

-- Treasurer Deb Goldberg signed off on a move of Lottery headquarters from Braintree to Dorchester, drawing criticism from her election opponent Rep. Keiko Orral, who questioned the cost and transparency of the process.

-- The House and Senate teamed up with Baker to pass a law that will spare almost 1,000 retirees, mostly retired teachers, from steep health insurance premium spikes in July. The Senate also passed a $1.8 billion housing bond bill.

-- The Senate unveiled state-level net neutrality legislation that would bar internet service providers from charging customers more to access certain web content at higher speeds, but met resistance from the industry that says it's an issue best left to the federal government.

-- The Senate Ways and Means Committee has rewritten the House-approved short-term rental bill to include a simpler tax structure and less state-based regulation, setting up likely negotiations over the coming months that will look a lot like the fight over how to regulate Uber and Lyft.